WHO OBAMA IS LIKE AND WHO HE LIKES ON THE WORLD STAGE:
HOW OBAMA BECAME OBAMA:
BBC:
Turkish MPs have approved controversial plans to reform the country's top judicial body, amid a brawl which left one opposition MP with a broken nose. The government wants the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors - the HSYK - to come under justice ministry control. The bill was debated overnight amid heated scenes, with reports of dozens of MPs involved in a fist fight. Last month the judicial body said the plans were unconstitutional and would undermine its independence.
The plans were proposed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party, which dominates parliament. At one point during the 20-hour debate, scuffles broke out leading to punches being thrown. The MP whose nose was broken - Ali Ihsan Kokturk from the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) - needed hospital treatment. Another MP from the governing AK Party suffered broken fingers. Opposition MP Ali Ihsan Kokturk had his nose broken in the brawl.
The reforms come after allies of Mr Erdogan were arrested in a major corruption inquiry, after which the government dismissed hundreds of policemen.NOW, ERDOGAN AND THE AKP CONTROL THE GOVERNMENT, THE JUDICIARY AND THE MILITARY.
Converts Jordan Horner, 20, Ricardo McFarlane, 26, and Royal Barnes, 23, have been handed Antisocial Behavioural Orders (Asbos) which forbid them from forcing their views on others.Wait a minute. They're allowed to meet in a mosque? If they let that happen, they'll be blowing it big time. What if they pass notes to each other for additional acts of evil to carry out? I'd head in past years that some jihadists have been engaging in more "underground" activities, and if meetings at the same mosque are allowed, then they'll only enable more horrible acts to potentially be plotted by the Islamofascists in question here. Very sloppy ruling on the mosque matter, I'm afraid.
They have also been forbidden from meeting hate cleric Anjem Choudary.
Judge Timothy Pontius admitted the order was “drastic” but at the Old Bailey added: “With the public interest in mind and the safety of individual members of the public in particular, it seems to me essential that these orders should be granted to run for that period of time.”
The gang had targeted young couples holding hands, people drinking alcohol and women who they deemed to dress “inappropriately” in a month of “religious vigilantism” between December 2012 and January 2013.
The Asbos issued today bar them from distributing material or accosting members of the public and causing them “harassment, alarm or distress”.
They were also forbidden from associating with each other and radical clerics Anjem Choudary and Dean Le Page, both leading members of banned group al-Muhajiroun, later known as Muslims Against Crusades, unless in peaceful worship in a mosque.
Factory production in the U.S. unexpectedly declined in January by the most since May 2009, adding to evidence severe winter weather weighed on the economy.
-In January, we were told that the U.S. economy "created" 113,000 new jobs. But that figure was arrived at only after adding a massive seasonal adjustment. In reality, the U.S. economy actually lost 2.87 million jobs in January.
During the past decade, the only time the U.S. economy has lost more jobs in January was during 2009. At that time, the U.S. economy was suffering through the peak of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
-Prominent retailers are closing hundreds of stores all over the United States. Things have gotten so bad that some are calling this a "retail apocalypse"...IF THE ECONOMY WAS REALLY GOING TO IMPROVE, WOULD ALL THOSE RETAILERS BE CUTTING BACK?
-McDonald's is reporting that sales at established U.S. locations were down 3.3 percent in January.
- JC Penney, which lost $586 million in three months in 2013, is planning to close 33 stores in 19 states and lay off 2,000 people. JC Penney?s stock has lost 84 percent of its value since February 2012.
- Sears has decided to shut down its flagship store in Downtown Chicago, and it has closed 300 stores in the United States since 2010. Stock analyst Brian Sozzi noted that Sear?s inventory levels have fallen by 23.7 percent since 2006. He also noted that Sears had $4.4 billion in cash and equivalents in 2005 but $609 million in cash and equivalents in 2012. Sozzi, who calls himself a guerrilla analyst, has a blog full of disturbing pictures of empty Sears stores.
- Macy's, one of the few retail success stories, is planning to close five stores and eliminate 2,500 jobs.
- Radio Shack is preparing to close 500 stores, according to The Wall Street Journal.
- Best Buy recently closed 50 stores and eliminated 950 jobs at stores in Canada.
- Target announced plans to eliminate 475 jobs and not fill 700 empty positions to reduce costs.
- Aeropostale is planning to close 175 stores.
- Blockbuster has closed down all of its stores.
-In January, real disposable income in the U.S. experienced the largest year over year decline that we have seen since 1974.
Gross domestic product in the 18-nation euro zone grew by 0.3 percent in the October-December period, compared with the previous quarter, when it grew by 0.1 percent, according to Eurostat, the Luxembourg-based statistical agency of the European Union. The quarterly rise was better than the 0.2 percent growth economists had been expecting, and works out to a 1.1 percent annualized rate of growth.1.1% GROWTH IS NOT SUFFICIENT TO IMPROVE THE LIVES OF ANY EUROPEANS; LIVING STANDARDS AND EMPLOYMENT WILL DECLINE WITH ANEMIC GROWTH LIKE THIS.
An amateur boxer has become the tenth known Briton to have died fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria.As I figured, they'd avoid directly acknowledging the influence of Islam in this case; I don't expect the UK authorities to talk about this later on. The sad reality is that they're not trying to prevent these bad influences at all.
On Thursday police were searching the house where Anil Khalil Raoufi, 20, a mechanical engineering student, lived with his family in a suburb of Manchester.
Officers said they were attempting to establish how "a man from the North West" could have come to be killed in Syria, although they did not confirm his identity. It is believed that Raoufi was fighting with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), a jihadist group linked to al-Qaeda.
The disclosure comes amid mounting concern over the number of Britons joining rebels in Syria. It is believed that several hundred have travelled from Britain to fight in the country, and security services fear they will be trained in terror techniques and return to the UK.
Last Thursday, two Turkish businessmen stopped for lunch in a fish restaurant during a business trip to Edirne in the Babaeski region.True. And look at the impact it's had on people who might not be Jewish too. If they don't rid themselves of Islamic influence, that'll only guarantee anti-semitism's continuation.
At some point during their meal, the restaurant owner figured out that they were Jews.
Rather than show them the hospitality Turkey is renowned for, he said he won’t serve Jews, and began cursing them and the Torah. He then took a long knife off the counter and threatened to kill them.
The men ran for their lives.
Anti-Semitic attacks have become regular events in Turkey. In December, after leaving an anti-corruption rally in Istanbul, a young woman was attacked by 10 to 15 supporters of Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan who had just left a support rally for the premier.
They accused her of being a Jew, as they beat her up.
In an interview with The Times of Israel, Turkish opposition MP Ayken Kerdemir said that Erdogan has cultivated Turkish anti-Semitism. “He is not only capitalizing on the existing sentiments, Kerdemir explained. Erdogan is “fueling some of that anti-Israel and anti-Semitic feeling… with his rhetoric, conspiracy theories, campaign slogans and actions.”
Kerdemir explained that Erdogan’s cultivation of anti-Semitism in Turkish society will continue to affect Turkey’s behavior and social values long after he is gone. “Even after Erdogan and AKP are gone, even if [the opposition party] CHP comes to power, it will take us quite some time to mend inter-societal relations through dialogue, awareness raising and sensitivity training.”
Once you let that genie out of the bottle, it is very hard to stuff it back inside.
At a news conference late Thursday morning, Mr. de Blasio defended the decision, noting that since 1978, New York closed schools only 11 times because of snow. Asked why it made sense to keep schools open after city and state officials urged people to stay off the roads, Mr. de Blasio said that it was not an easy decision, but that they made a decision based on the best available information. “We were convinced that kids could get to schools this morning,” he told reporters. Both the mayor and the schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, said that the forecasts they had been given by the National Weather Service led them to believe the snowfall would be less intense. Their comments came under fire almost immediately from meteorologists, most notably NBC’s weatherman Al Roker, who said that the forecasts had been accurate. He took to Twitter even as the mayor spoke, saying the National Weather Service had forecast the storm just as it was playing out. Mr. de Blasio was dismissive of the criticism. “It is a different thing to run a city than to give the weather on TV,” he said. Ms. Fariña seemed to have a different view of the weather than many New Yorkers, even as snow, sleet and rain continued to fall in many parts of the city. “It is an absolutely beautiful day out there right now,” she said.That's the left's usual way of handling reality: LIES. The more blatant, the better.
Russian president endorses army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's undeclared bid to head Egypt as the two leaders negotiate a massive Moscow weapons dealOBAMA HAS SIDED WITH THE ISLAMIST MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD:
since Sisi led a military coup to depose elected President Mohamed Morsi amid massive unrest in Egypt last summer, the Obama administration has withheld much of the annual $1.5 billion in military assistance traditionally supplied to Cairo.OBAMA IS GIVING EGYPT TO PUTIN.
"... the former Massachusetts governor has some strong words about the cost of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, estimated at $50b (£30b) (although even that figure may be too low)."
In response to the indignant outrage provoked by his killing of a 2-year-old male giraffe in the care of the Copenhagen Zoo, director Bengt Holst has offered a eugenic rationale. Apparently, Marius was too closely related to other giraffes in captivity in Europe, and therefore would not be useful in the zoo breeding program. Bengt Holst gave this explanation:
"Our giraffes are part of an international breeding program, which has a purpose of ensuring a sound and healthy population of giraffes," Holst told CNN. "It can only be done by matching the genetic composition of the various animals with the available space. ... When giraffes breed as well as they do now, then you will inevitably run into so-called surplus problems now and then."Notice that there is no shortage of giraffes in European zoos. And yet, even though putting Marius to stud would therefore not be necessary anyway, he had to be put to death. He was a "surplus problem." There is, I think, a little more to it than that.
According to the zoo's calculations, Marius was of more use to it dead than alive. So, Marius's keeper lured him with a piece of rye bread, his favorite food, into a yard away from the other giraffes, and as he bent down his long neck to take the treat from his keeper's hand, a veterinarian dispatched him with a shot from a bolt gun to his head. Zoo patrons, including children, were then permitted to watch and learn about giraffe anatomy as the vet butchered Marius. "It helps increase the knowledge about animals but also the knowledge about life and death," said Holst about the anatomy lesson. The giraffe's remains were subsequently tossed into the lions' den—which, some have said, would likely have been his fate anyway if Marius had lived in his natural environment, the African savannah.This was a reminder that those who have taken upon themselves the mission of caring for our human community, and who have taken the power to do so, will shed no tears when it becomes "necessary" to rid themselves of a "surplus problem." And the Danish zoo establishment defiantly promises to do it again:
The Danish Jyllands Park Zoo said on Wednesday it might put down one of its giraffes, which by coincidence is also named Marius, just as the giraffe Copenhagen Zoo slaughtered on Sunday to the disgust of animal lovers around the world, according to Danish news agency Ritzau. Staff at Copenhagen Zoo have received death threats after the zoo killed the 18-month-old healthy male giraffe because the animal's genes were already well represented in an international breeding program that aims to maintain a healthy giraffe population in European zoos.
Jyllands Park Zoo in western Denmark might put down its seven-year-old Marius if the zoo manages to acquire a female giraffe, which is most likely, zoo keeper Janni Lojtved Poulsen told Ritzau. The zoo also has a younger male called Elmer. “We can't have two males and one female. Then there will be fights,” Poulsen said. She said that it might be possible to find another place for the giraffe to live, but that the probability is small. Like its namesake in Copenhagen, Jyllands Park Zoo's Marius is considered unsuitable for breeding. “If the breeding program coordinator decides that he should be put down, then that's what we'll do,” Poulsen said.First, they came for the giraffes . . . . There may be another reason, as well. I think Virginia Morrell, writing for the National Geographic, is dead right about this.
Marius was not living in the African savannah. He was living in a zoo, one that asserts that its mission is to be "known and respected for its high standards and quality regarding the keeping of animals," and for its ethics. All of which raises some questions: Why is the zoo breeding reticulated giraffes, when they are not endangered in the wild? And why did they let Marius's parents mate? For answers, you need look no further than the Copenhagen Zoo's Facebook page, where it celebrates the birth of a baby giraffe (possibly Marius) in 2012. Humans, science has shown, are drawn to babies of all kinds; we love the big eyes, the floppy limbs, the fluff and fuzz of infants. Baby leopards, baby pandas, baby elephants ... baby giraffes. They all draw huge, paying crowds to zoos.Baby animals are big money draws for zoos like this one. But when they grow up, baby giraffes aren't so cute anymore. And they have to be fed. So kill them.
Once, on Equatorial Guinea's Bioko Island, a baby tree hyrax (which looks something like a large guinea pig) came bursting out of the bushes—not to get away from a group of us humans, but to seek our care. (Later, we found his dead mother.) If we'd been another kind of primate, we would have eaten the hyrax. Instead, we scooped him up, nursed him as best we could, and took him to a small animal shelter. Of course, humans don't always respond this way to needy, young animals. But we think that is what the people running zoos do.
And so our hearts were broken when we saw the keepers at the Copenhagen Zoo break their trust with Marius. He should never have died so young and at the hands of his caretakers, the very ones who should have done all they could to protect him. Zoos may feel that it is necessary to bill themselves as big players on the conservation stage. But what most of us want to see from zoos and their keepers is compassion for their charges, all of whom live such narrow, corralled lives. If zoos cannot offer this to the Mariuses in their care, they will lose the public's goodwill, and will deservedly find themselves heading toward extinction.If anybody should have been fed to the lions, it wasn't Marius. Some people are angry enough to suggest that it should have been Bengt Holst. After all, at his age, he isn't very useful to the Danish people's breeding program, is he?
Palestinians should become full citizens in Israel, according to Habayit Hayehudi MK Zvulun Kalfa.Yes, it does have the potential of reducing a lot of those problems, though a lot of the Islamists wouldn't thank him for proposing this, and would be likely to continue voting for Arab/Muslim parties in the Knesset, and other left-wing movements. But it could still have something to it, so maybe it should be experimented on.
"We should grant Palestinians full citizenship, equality, invest in their local infrastructure and [give them] voting rights in the Knesset," Kalfa said, in a surprising suggestion from a right-wing MK.
The proposal is born out of Kalfa's ideological objection to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He believes that the state should draft a law claiming all the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea as an undivided Israel, and making all residents within its borders Israeli.
Kalfa feels this will put an end to claims of Israeli apartheid or maltreatment of its Arab residents.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz criticized Israel Wednesday for its blockade of the Gaza Strip and for allegedly allowing Israelis to consume more water than Palestinians, causing a storm of protest from the far-right Jewish Home party, some of whose members walked out while he was addressing the Knesset plenum.Here's where the Times of Israel puts in a very sad bias of their own, pointlessly calling them "far-right". That makes their own reporting reek of potential leftism.
In a wide-ranging speech, Schulz, who spoke in his mother tongue of German, reassured Israel of the European Union’s friendship, asserting that it plans no boycott against Israel and is committed to the Jewish people’s right to live in peace and security. On the other hand, he vocally criticized certain Israeli settlement policies and called on Israel to consider easing its blockade of Gaza, suggesting that it increases Palestinian frustration and thus makes Israelis less secure.He buys into taqqiya at face value, or maybe he knows it's all a sham and is playing his part in demonization of Israel, something he believes is perfectly justified.
“The blockade of the Gaza Strip is your reaction to attacks on the civilian population. But it also does not allow real development and drives people to despair, which in turn is used by extremists,” Schulz said. “Perhaps the blockade creates not more, but less, security.”
Schulz also recounted a meeting he held two days ago with young Palestinians, saying they dream of something that most people take for granted: “to live in their own country, without violence, without restrictions of movement.” Palestinians have the same rights as Israelis to self-determination and justice, Schulz said.
“One of the questions from these young men that moved me the most was: How can it be that Israelis are allowed to use 70 liters [of water] per day and Palestinians only 17?”
At this point, several right-wing MKs yelled out in protest, with a number of Jewish Home party lawmakers, including Orit Struck and Moti Yogev, stalking out of the plenum. Minutes after Schulz finished speaking, Economy Minister and Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett released a statement demanding an apology for “two lies that the Palestinians fed him.”Such an offensive man. He should not be welcomed back ever again. At this point, it makes little difference whether they'll threaten a boycott or not. People like Schulz are not worth selling goods to anyway.
“The words that were heard in the Knesset are very serious,” Bennett stated. “Silence in the face of false propaganda legitimizes actions against Israelis. I will not accept false moralizing against the people of Israel, in Israel’s Knesset. Certainly not in German.”
Yogev said that today Palestinians received the same amount of water as Israel and that Israel is actually “taking care” of Gazans, providing them with food and cement “that is being used against” Israel.
“His support for Palestinians who incite for the destruction of Israel, from the Knesset podium, 70 years after the Holocaust, is a chutzpah without parallel,” Yogev said.
A young man called Ishmael, with a wispy black beard and a slight blemish in one eye, is telling me why women should be covered up and kept apart.This reminds me of an imam in Australia who called women wearing little clothing/no burkas "uncovered meat". If that's what such a disgrace thinks, does he also despise God for creating women? I'd think he does, and his statements are an insult to God.
“If I had two sweets – one wrapped and one unwrapped – and threw them in a bin, which one would you pick out and eat?” He grins, the amateur philosopher pleased with his analogy, and breaks off to shake the hand of a young man walking past the makeshift London Metropolitan University Islamic Society stall set up in the student canteen. Ishmael, who says he is a former head of the society (something the current president later denies) appears to know a lot of the students passing through.
“Women are man’s great temptation,” he turns back to face me. “They should be covered up.”
Later that evening, in the windowless lecture room GC1-08, which juts out silver and angular over north London’s Holloway Road, the members of the Islamic Society file in. Through a side door come the men, occupying the seats at the front. Through another door come the women, sitting as far back as possible. There are no signs in place, and the society insists it has no policy of segregation, and yet on more than one occasion, a female late arrival is directed to sit at the back.But are they being fair? As the following tells, despite the issue being raised earlier:
The talk is called “The Effects of Sins” by an external lecturer called Ustadh Abu Ibrahim. He appears to be no firebrand, espousing moderate views that wouldn’t sound out of place in any mosque, church or temple. At the end, he stresses that the women at the back should be allowed to ask questions. “You have to be fair to the sisters,” he tells his audience.
Spring term 2014 was supposed to bring an end to gender segregation at British universities. In December, the Prime Minister himself intervened over the issue, emphasising through a spokesman that he wanted it banned even where men and women voluntarily separate themselves (although not in places of worship). [...]Dear dear dear. I had a bad feeling this would be the result, which is practically nothing at all. Again, the UK goes jelly-spined and fails to make any significant halt to discriminatory practices at their universities, or other public outfits.
Yet, while hands wring over the latest furore, inside Britain’s universities nothing seems to have changed. In Islamic societies dominated by more traditional elements, segregated seating – be it enforced, implicit or otherwise – continues unchallenged. Hard-line speakers, who espouse the sorts of views I heard from Ishmael in the canteen, are meanwhile still being invited on a weekly basis.
White House delays health insurance mandate for medium-sized employers until 2016
The Obama administration announced Monday it would give medium-sized employers an extra year, until 2016, before they must offer health insurance to their full-time workers.
Firms with at least 100 employees will have to start offering this coverage in 2015.
By offering an unexpected grace period to businesses with between 50 and 99 employees, administration officials are hoping to defuse another potential controversy involving the 2010 health-care law, which has become central to Republicans’ campaign to make political gains in this year’s midterm election.
Even the nation’s largest employers got a significant concession: They can avoid a fine by offering coverage to 70 percent of their full-time employees in 2015 and 95 percent starting in 2016.WHAT WAS URGENT IN 2009 IS NO LONGER URGENT IN 2014?!
A majority of Jewish Israelis -- 61 percent -- think U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry threatened Israel last weekend when he said that Israel may face boycotts and further delegitimization if the current peace negotiations with the Palestinians fail, an Israel Hayom-New Wave Research poll found.And this just shows the public sides with said criticism.
Kerry was widely criticized in Israel this past week for his statements.
Final results showed 50.3% voted in favour. The vote invalidates the Swiss-EU agreement on freedom of movement.
The European Commission said it regretted the outcome of the vote and would examine its implications.
Fiercely independent Switzerland is not a member of the EU, but has adopted large sections of EU policy.
Freedom of movement is a key pillar of the EU single market - a market which accounts for more than half of Swiss exports.
Switzerland's economy is booming at the moment, and unemployment is low, but many Swiss worry about immigration.
Last year 80,000 new immigrants arrived in Switzerland, and foreigners now make up 23% of the population. It is the continent's second highest foreign population after Luxembourg.AND THEY THINK 23% IS MORE THAN ENOUGH - WHICH IS THEIR RIGHT AS A PEOPLE, AND AS A NATION.
as a muslim reader who has enjoyed plenty of marvel work in the past (i am one of the few who liked FEAR ITSELF), i must say this MS. MARVEL book comes across really quite offensive in some of it's, shall we say, misunderstanding generalisations and what comes across as being the very bare minimum of knowledge of it's only "niche". alternatively faiza hussain from CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI:13 was a great muslim heroine without relying on that as her only defining aspect.I wonder if he's saying that just because the near replacement for Capt. Britain wore a burka? Of course, even that book has what can turn off some hardcore Muslims: as noted before, Hussain rolled up her sleeves while playing sports!
Sorry you didn’t care for it. But given that the writer and the editor both share aspects of the character’s backstory, I think the material you’re reacting to as being an ill-informed generalization is really specific storytelling decisions that are being made on their part.Has it occurred to him that there's Muslims out there (who, despite what they say, might not be very keen on reading the output of companies formed by Jews) who'll detest the story no matter how "devout" it's POV of Islam is, and won't even be satisfied that it's a propaganda piece meant to mislead unsuspecting "infidels"? Maybe now it will.
With that same wry humor, Wilson touches on the stereotypes that many Muslim women and girls deal with on a regular basis. “Your headscarf is so pretty, Kiki,” a well-meaning but culturally uneducated character says to one of Kamala’s friends. “But…nobody pressured you to start wearing it, right? Nobody’s going to, like, honor-kill you?”I don't think that's funny at all. Never mind it's obviously their way of fitting in an excuse to say non-Muslims are uninformed, it's very disgusting to make light of the issue of honor murders and make jokes about it. Wilson's doing more bad for Muslim women than good with bottom of the barrel humor like that. Also, I took a look at CBR's forum thread for this book, and while a lot of the replies were predictably gushy, there was one that stood out:
Does it have to be this one sided though? It is portrayed as the Muslims are the good guys and the white people are so obnoxious.I guess that was expected too. Interestingly enough, the book does contain at least one odd element that must've turned off Brevoort's caller, and doubtless will irk other devout Muslims too:
...Kamala’s unseemly interest in bacon on page one (“delicious, delicious infidel meat”) through to her Avengers/My Little Pony fanfic (which has almost 1000 upvotes on freakingcool.com) to her explanation that she wants to be just like Carol Danvers, “except I would wear the classic, politically incorrect costume and kick butt in giant wedge heels.”Very facinating. I can see now why there will be Islamists who won't like it: despite Wilson's otherwise positive depiction of Islam in this book, she's clearly trying to devise a pretend act that Muslims aren't that stringent about non-halal food (and even implies Khan would like to wear Carol Danvers's most famous costume design), and for hardcore Islamists, that's simply haram (forbidden). Simultaneously, she puts in the word "infidel", which is like saying that non-Muslims are outsiders.
NYTIMES/OPINION | OPINION
The End of Snow?
By PORTER FOX
Nothing besides a national policy shift on how we create and consume energy will keep our mountains white.
On September 13, Arctic sea ice reached its likely minimum extent for 2013. The minimum ice extent was the sixth lowest* in the satellite record, and reinforces the long-term downward trend in Arctic ice extent. Sea ice extent will now begin its seasonal increase through autumn and winter.Meanwhile, in the Antarctic, sea ice extent reached a record high on September 18, tied with last year’s maximum.
[The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) supports research into our world's frozen realms: the snow, ice, glaciers, frozen ground, and climate interactions that make up Earth's cryosphere.]